 Mission Overviews for Comet, Moon, and Earth scenarios
1) Rendezvous with a Comet
Scientists want to venture out into Earth's "neighborhood" as part of a long-term study of small bodies in the Solar System. Primary targets include comets and asteroids, which scientists believe are the oldest, most primitive bodies in the Solar System and may preserve the earliest record of the material that formed Earth and its planetary neighbors.
During this mission, team members work as scientists and engineers headed to Rendezvous with a Comet as part of this continued study of our Solar System. These rendezvous missions are critical in helping scientists verify and better understand data collected by earlier small body missions occurring at the start of the new Millenium, such as STARDUST and its capture of cometary material from comet Wild-2 in 2004 and the return of that material to Earth in 2006. The actual samples provided by STARDUST established detailed baseline data on comets still used today. The onboard astronauts, working with their counterparts in Mission Control, are tasked with sending a probe to intercept and collect new data in a well-studied short-period comet.
The Space Lab used for these rendezvous missions require lots of maintenance and care, providing plenty of challenges for the crews in space and on the ground. Navigating into the correct position for probe launches - not to mention sending a probe through the material surrounding an active comet - also requires concentration and teamwork to successfully collect vital scientific information and complete the mission.
Small bodies in the Solar System are also highly unpredictable objects and have been known to surprise scientists from time to time, so crew members will also need to be alert and ready to make quick decisions.
All About Comets
Comets are mysterious, distant travelers originating from the depths of our solar system and orbiting the sun in a highly elliptical path. Star gazers see comets as specters with luminous tails arching across the night sky for a month or two, and then disappearing from sight. Some comets never come back, with orbital periods of tens of thousands of years. Only approximately 184 of 878 known comets are calculated to have periodic orbits of less than 200 years long. For this reason, seeing comets like Halley's Comet, with its seventy-six year orbit, is often a once in a lifetime experience. Comets are scientifically valuable because they may be remnants of the material out of which the planets and moons formed. Comets may even contain clues about early life on Earth.
Sometimes called "dirty snowballs" comets are small, irregularly shaped lumps of rock, dust, and ice. They originate in either the Kuiper Belt, located outside Neptune's and Pluto's orbit, or in the Oort Cloud, hundreds of times farther away from Pluto extending halfway to the nearest star. Gravitational disturbances can cause a comet to go hurling toward the Sun. As a comet enters the inner solar system, heat from the Sun vaporizes the ice, forming an enormous cloud of gas and dust around the tiny comet. The closer the comet gets to the Sun, the more gas and dust blow away forming a tail that stretches out millions of kilometers. As the comet travels away from the Sun to the outer reaches of the solar system, the tail shortens and the gas cloud disappears.
The origin of the word comet comes from the Greek word for hair. Our ancestors thought comets were new stars with what looked like long, flowing hair trailing behind them. The "hairy" star suddenly appeared and moved across the night sky only to disappear again a few weeks or months later.
Our ancestors considered comets to be Portents of evil. To thwart the curse of the comet, Emperor Nero had all possible successors executed. A comet was sighted before the Battle of Hastings which was interpreted to mean King Harold would lose his throne to William, the Duke of Normandy. This came to pass. In Peru, the sighting of the comet preceded Francisco Pisarro's conquest of the Incas.
Even in the recent past, comet panic caused terror. In Chicago people sealed windows against the poisonous tail of the comet. Others committed suicide. In Oklahoma police saved a virgin from being sacrificed by a comet cult.
2)Return to the Moon Scenario
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On July 20, 1969 American astronaut Neil Armstrong descended the ladder of his lunar lander to step on soil which no human had touched before.
It is now the year 2025 and the Moon missions continue.... |
| This time, a permanent base will be established there. One final decision needs to be made: where is the best site for the landing and building the base? |
The Scenario:
As part of the Return to the Moon mission, this crew of astronauts will - for the first time since the early Apollo missions in the 1960's - conduct a fly-by of the Moon. This time the astronauts are there working on the first phase in the process of establishing a permanent base by landing an equipment module on the Moon as a result of this mission.
The Return to the Moon mission begins with the spacecraft in Earth's orbit and the Mission Control team monitoring the crew's status. The crew aboard the spacecraft will leave Earth's orbit and travel to the Moon using the latest in transport technology to reduce the travel time. In addition to verifying the best site for the establishment of the lunar base during the course of the mission, the crew will build and deploy the lunar lander to the lunar surface.
Some information has been previously obtained from the potential lunar base sites. A detailed study has determined that the base site must contain soils, metals, and potentially useful resources such as helium-3. Rock and soil samples, soil composition, and seismic information have been gathered by previous missions from portions of the potential sites. Experiments on soil and rock samples from other possible sites must be performed in order to determine the best site for the lunar base. The crew will navigate their spacecraft to the Moon and plot an acceptable orbit.
Together the crew will place their spaceship into lunar orbit and make the important decision about the location of the first permanent lunar base. To gather the data needed to analyze potential lunar base sites, the crew will have to function as a team and utilize their best communications and analytical skills.
| Navigation team (NAV) |
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| Team Objectives: |
- Getting to the Moon isn't easy; it's up to the Navigation team to see that the equipment module lands in one of two potential sites on the Moon.
- Complex mathematical computations must be made to keep a spacecraft on course. The US Moon program led to significant advances in computers that allowed for the precise manoeuvres needed for launch, orbit, docking and landing.
- On board the spacecraft the NAV team verifies the spacecraft's position by triangulation and locates Earth communications systems.
- The final task is to locate the exact site for landing and set the computers for automatic landing.
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| Space Weather Team (SW) |
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Team Objectives:
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- Monitor solar flares and coronal mass ejections to ensure the safety of the crew in space.
- Create a model of the magnetosphere.
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| Aeronatical Engineering Team (AERO ENG) |
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| Team Objectives: |
- Space probes are very complex and expensive to build and launch, so a highly dedicated team is needed to design, test and launch it.
- During the flight to the Moon, the AERO ENG Team is in constant contact with its counterpart in Mission Control, double-checking every step to ensure the equipment module is constructed and launced to the Moon.
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| Communications Team (COM) |
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| Team Objectives: |
- The Communication team's mission is to establish a verbal link between the spacecraft and mission control.
- NASA Communication Officers or Capcoms are astronauts trained to give instructions to astronauts in orbit and funnel information between the spacecraft and the mission controllers, engineers and scientists on the ground.
- At the Challenger Center, the COM officers are just as vital, sending messages among seven other teams and controlling remote cameras.
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| Life Support (LS) |
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| Team Objectives: |
- The Life Support team makes sure that there is enough air, water and electricity to complete the mission.
- The Life Support team makes sure that the spacecraft has enough air, water and electricity to function efficiently.
- Life support has to take accurate readings, change oxygen filters and deal with the occasional crisis. Don't forget: you might not notice when you are breathing, but you certainly will notice when you are not.
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| Geology Team (GEO) |
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| Team Objectives: |
- Lunar samples need to be tested in a self-contained environment, so the Remote team works with a glove box to provide the crew and mission control with lunar information.
- The Remote team has several experiments to conduct, including testing soil for metal content, classifying rocks and identifying their characteristics.
- The Remote team will be indispensible in determining the landing site for the module and location of the future base on the Moon.
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| Isolation Teams: (ROBOTIC, HAZMAT, Solar Array Monitoring) |
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| Team Objectives: |
- Using robots, the Robotic team tests chemicals too dangerous to be handled directly by people. Dangerous chemicals are needed to conduct some experiments.
- SAM monitors meteor damage to the spacecraft. If damage increases the SAM team pulls a shield to protect the cabin crew.
- It's up to the Hazmat team to use remotely-controlled robots to determine the level of radiation in the Space Lab.
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| Medical Team (MED) |
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| Team Objectives: |
- The doctors on the Medical team have one very important task: to keep everyone healthy and working at top efficiency.
- Radiation, motion sickness and circulation are very real problems in space, and are constantly being checked.
- The MED team on board the Spacecraft checks astronaut breathing rate, skin temperature, heart rate and reaction time.
- If the need arises, the medical team is ready to perform a vestibular test.
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3) Earth from Orbit
For details on this mission, please visit clcmissions.wikispaces.com
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